


of weird habits and small things done for love

by Lua



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Established Relationship, M/M, Steter Week 2017, Unbeta'd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-07 19:18:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12847776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lua/pseuds/Lua
Summary: Stiles knows fire season is always hard on Peter. Stiles doesn't blame him if he gets a little weird.[steter week - day two]





	of weird habits and small things done for love

After spending a long time with someone, you’re bonded to start picking up their habits and mannerisms. Stiles was no different.

He had five years and counting against Peter’s cagey behavior to know Peter didn’t deal well with fire season. And being a Californian, you didn’t even blink at fire season unless you had an issue that ran a bit deeper than skin surface because it would come and go and come again since you had summer and hotter summer and that was just how life was. So Peter’s behavior was odd at best, incredibly weird at worst and somehow endearing because Stiles was a weirdo, it seemed. He worried about Peter and he knew exactly where Peter was coming from when he would tense up at the smell of burning anything for all two seconds before realizing people could see him. 

In fact, it wasn’t as obvious as one would think. Or expect. Stiles expected someone with that level of trauma to be a lot more obvious than Peter but that was cool, he learned to pick up the clues he was handed. As Stiles would point out to anyone else if anyone else did pick up on such bizarre habits and mannerisms, Peter was hella good at hiding. Not that Stiles took pride on his boyfriend’s skills – which he totally did but was not the point of this discussion – Peter’s obvious hiding and ‘I’m very uncomfortable’ neon sign holding sort of behavior was actually rather…discreet. It took Stiles forever and a fire near Hill Valley before he was brought up to speed.

At the time, Stiles also found Peter didn’t really like coffee but that he wouldn’t let go of the scent of coffee. There were mugs everywhere in his apartment, almost like he was trying to attract a very specific type of cat in a real-life sort of Neko Atsume scenario. It weirded Stiles out just as much as it intrigued him. Peter said he forgot the mugs, but Stiles knew him well enough to catch the lie. Well, it wasn’t exactly a lie, Peter probably did forget most of the mugs except for the one he was almost breathing into but half a lie, still a lie. Stiles had felt tempted to dare him to drink it.

Stiles had a strong suspicious that Peter didn’t really like coffee since about three months into their relationship. Peter’s apartment always smelt like coffee despite the fact he was never caught drinking it. It was a lingering scent, except during fire season when there were abandoned mugs filled with cold coffee and fresh coffee being made all the time. Stiles was ashamed at how long it took him to put two and two together. Stiles had tried to bring Peter coffee several times before he realized that Peter just didn’t care for the beverage and it was all about the smell. It was an attempt to cover up the smell of ash and burnt wood that the dry wind brought in.

Peter didn’t deal with fire season well. It wasn’t obvious if you weren’t looking for it, but Stiles was trained in Peter’s habits and mannerisms by now and he knew exactly where to look. He knew him well enough to notice the way he paused and sniffed the air. Not actually sniffed the air like Scott used to do when he was discovering his wolfy senses back in school. It was more a wrinkle of the nose like he was smelling something bad and couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was; like he caught a scent and it was just too faint. It was a normal reaction, like Stiles would have when he got home, and he could just smell the scent of coffee made hours before he arrived still lingering in the place with all its windows open. It wasn’t fresh enough, but there was something in the air and he knew that if he followed the right trail, he would find a mug half-filled that he could claim with some to none protest, variation on how much protest he would encounter depending on the mood of the day. During fire season, Stiles was more likely to get home and make his own coffee before going to find Peter because Peter was to forget to make fresh coffee at all, after some point. It was something that embarrassed him on those first times that Stiles caught him surrounded by mugs filled with cold coffee in a corner of the couch, too tense to move, but he learned to deal with the fact that Stiles knew. Stiles knew _him_.

That was exactly how Stiles found him when he arrived home on Thursday, there was a fire near Canaan. The air was stale, and he found Peter hiding in the couch with three mugs in the coffee table that deserved its name in this apartment. He was not actually hiding like some animal but hiding in the way Peter did. The only reason Peter left the apartment at all during fire season, Stiles found out, was to prove to himself that he could. He had asked Stiles once, that time a fire had threatened to break near Hill Valley – it was contained rather quickly but the damage was done – if Stiles could stay the night just in case. In case of what, he didn’t say, but Stiles had pressed. It had turned into a ridiculous fight and they had yelled at each other while Stiles made coffee he wouldn’t drink because he suspected Peter needed it and he wasn’t so sure he wanted to stay if this was how it was going to be, but he wasn’t about to just leave when Peter was so clearly freaking out. In the end, Peter had confessed he wanted Stiles to break the mountain ash line, just in case, there was one. Just in case, he had said like it was a common occurrence, and Stiles had stared because the weight of that didn’t quite register until much later when he was driving home the next day. Just in case someone tried to burn them to death, Peter was saying. Just in case they were being hunted again, Peter was saying. Just in case the fires are not typical Californian fires but hunter fires and maybe, just maybe, they were coming for them, Peter was saying. Now, Stiles always tried to stay because he worried that just in case was something that was playing on repeat in Peter's mind.

Anyway, Peter was hiding, sitting on the couch, looking comfortable against the cushions, and surrounded by coffee mugs that smelled like someone forgot they're there since two days ago and Stiles were here. There was probably life being created in a mug somewhere in the apartment, Stiles was sure of it. He leaned in for a kiss and collected the mugs before even dropping his bag. The day was hot which made the idea of a fire so close by even worse.

“Did you eat anything?” he asked Peter from the kitchen, starting his own coffee ritual, because he was the one who actually drank coffee in this house instead of just wasting it because pretty much everything that could be bought for scent would require you lit it with fire or was just “too chemical” for Peter’s sensibilities. They had tried – Stiles had tried – to find a lot of products to help distract Peter from the fires and in the end, they always circled back to coffee. Stiles had nothing against a house that smelled like coffee all the time, it was a rather pleasant smell, things could be much worse, but he was a creature of efficiency and if he could spray something on Peter’s face and get Peter to just relax, he sure would. So far, no luck tho. “Did you get the groceries on the list?”

“Yeah,” Peter said after a moment. “It’s hot outside.”

“Dude, you tell me. Scott has this whole thing planned about going to the lake because _it’s hot outside_. I told him there are probably things living in the freaking lake, you know, ancient things,” Stiles tries to make conversation. He knows it doesn’t make anything better but sometimes it helps keep the panic at bay. He’d been there, he has tons of t-shirts because he’d seen the show so many freaking times. “Also, I had to remind him we are ancient things now, so, kinda uncool to go to the lake.”

He can hear Peter snorting.

“I can’t even begin explaining what sort of decaying thing you are. You’re a sort of zombie to start with,” he goes on and Peter emerges by the kitchen door. Stiles turns around and smiles at him before finally taking off his shoulder bag. “They say Canaan should be under control tonight.”

Peter nods.

“Do you want to go swimming with Scott? It’s not like I’m sick, Stiles,” Peter says and moves close enough to steal the coffee mug Stiles had prepared for himself. He sniffs it and closes his eyes. “You drink coffee far too sweet.”

“Shut up,” Stiles retrieved his mug. “You don’t drink it at all.”

“But I’m an appreciator of it,” he pointed out and waved towards the mugs at the table to offer them as proof. “I ordered some special coffee online. You’ll probably like it.”

“I’ll like it more if you do the dishes,” Stiles smiled again and leaned in to kiss Peter, being careful to not spill his freshly made coffee.

Stiles drank half the coffee and abandoned the mug half-filled on the coffee table. Peter returned to his spot on the couch after washing the mugs and making himself more coffee. Stiles never told Peter but after finding out about what caused the tension, he kept tabs on the fires near Beacon County. He had a suspicion Peter knew and did the same, but they never talked about it. Just like they never talked about Stiles’ own traumas unless Stiles decided it was time to bring a particular nightmare out of its box. They just made room for them and let them take space in their living room as they needed -  when they needed -  like in the form of too many coffee mugs and open windows on hot days. At some point, fire season would be over, and Peter would be fine. Well, not fine because neither of them was actually fine. It would take them another five years to begin to heal enough to be close to fine, but they were okay like this. The smell of coffee would linger in their apartment as a reminder that Peter would always carry that trauma with him and Stiles wouldn’t press him about it. It was fine enough. They were fine enough. They had enough room for both of them as they were.

Peter pushed his feet under Stiles’ tights and Stiles made a face.

“It’s hot,” he complaint but didn’t move.

“Are you working?” Peter asked and put his mug on the floor where they could easily trip over it and spill coffee on the fluffy carpet Stiles liked so much.

“Derek sent me some symbols to take a look.”

“Selfish,” Peter accused but didn’t move closer. They had boundaries and Stiles work was his own. If Stiles needed or wanted another set of eyes or an opinion while researching, he would ask for them just like Peter would make it clear that he wanted an extra set of hands to protect Beacon Hills.

Stiles smiled at him and pushed the mug slightly closed to Peter. He was happy to have Peter and his weird habits to put up with. It was strangely comfortable.

"Always."

He was happy to be home. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading it!!


End file.
